Here is the letter I sent to NPR. I actually had to break it into two for the emails, because of the 6,000 character limit, but I think that may have actually helped each topic to recieve proper focus. I don’t really expect anything to come of this, but there is this tiny hope that they’ll read a couple of lines of mine on air. Mine, instead of the thousands of other comments they get each week. I can dream, right?
Anyway, if you are wondering what I’m talking about, read the previous post and the links in it, and hopefully you’ll see why I thought I should say something. So after all the stalling, here it is… (more…)
Sometimes NPR makes me sad. These two stories ran back to back on Monday, and I’m trying to decide which part to focus my angry/disappointed/how can people really think this way?! letter on. (The text on the page is not the same as the story that you’ll hear if you click the “Listen Now” button at the top – they cut whole paragraphs, but actually come out as two significantly different stories.)
And by the way, the Guttmacher Institute who did the study at the beginning of the first article (50% of US pregnancies are unplanned) is basically Planned Parenthood. Who funds NPR, and is funded by several of the same huge endowments/foundations which keep NPR running. (In case you were curious, as I was, about any potential bias here.) When/if the angry letter gets written, I’ll post a copy here. We have a wedding in Houston this weekend and I have a long day at school tomorrow, so it may be a while.
There are goats living down the street from us. Not on the end by the freeway, fortunately for them, but on the other end by the convenience store. There are two of them, and they wear collars. I’m not sure who the belong to, but I saw them a few days ago on one side of the street grazing in an empty lot, and this morning on the way to school I had to wait for them to cross the road. It was a little surreal. I was wanting to move to a farm, and it seems that the farm has come to me! (We also have a chicken next door, whose purpose is termite removal.) More details on goat sightings as they become available.
…but here they are. You might wonder what I’ve been doing with myself lately, since I clearly have not been posting here. (Besides telling my Latin students that the preceding sentence is an example of an indirect question, and would require and accusative-infinitive construction in Latin. If that doesn’t mean anything to you, don’t worry, it doesn’t mean anything to my students either.) Here are a few pictures to help you imagine what we have all been up to. I’m a little embarrassed by the blurriness, but I’m still figuring out these digital thingys.
The garden has been busy. I don’t have a picture of the garden itself, but here are some of the things which were growing before we left for Baton Rouge and Easter:
Jalapeno, somewhat blurry, and much larger now, since this pic is a week old.
Strawberry, the only one we got to eat before the birds. It was very yummy.
A rose and a flower whose name I forget, but it grew from hand-me-down Dollar Store seeds. That’s hard to beat.
While we were in BR, Craig’s parents got Lucy a car to play with there, which happens to match JJ’s (next door) car. They also enjoyed playing on the hammock.
While we were in BR we also picked up our first portion from the CSA we joined. It was small, because it’s the start of the season, but we got lettuce, greens, turnips, and some herbs. (My mother is wondering who hijacked her daughter’s blog…turnips???) Craig almost immediately purchased a turnip at the grocery store for comparison, and the CSA turnips won by a landslide. The herbs are pictured below. Besides looking nice on the counter, the mint went to tabouli (or however you choose to spell it), the garlic chives (which were amazing) joined some mashed potatoes, and the oregano (somebody please tell me if that is not oregano – I didn’t ask!) is holding out for spaghetti tomorrow night.
Yesterday we got Samantha (or me?) a belated Easter present, so that she can swing with Lucy. (And so that I don’t have to hold her while I swing Lucy.) This required a trip to Wal-mart to use last Easter’s gift card. I guess it is good for me to go every once in a while to remind myself why I hate going to Wal-mart. But at least now we have a swing. Lucy likes to swing Samantha, also. And I’m sorry I haven’t figured out how to turn the picture. You’ll have to turn your head, I guess.
So we’ve been busy, sort of. I have also been sewing a little, indulging in gardening blogs (although if anyone knows a good one for this area, let me know, I keep finding people in England!), and trying to crawl out from under the never ending piles of laundry and dishes. At least they’re seperate piles, I guess.
Things to look forward to (I have much more to say than time to write at the moment): from the reading list, I See Far; my new diet (and it’s not to lose weight!); more antics of Lucy and Samantha (who now has two teeth, did I mention that?); why heirloom vegetables are really, really cool, and much more. Christos anesti!
Maybe I should retitle this blog something about poo. It seems to be a theme lately. Until I get a chance to start writing some of what’s dancing around in my head (and digital camera!), this is worth reading. (How’s that for a teaser?)
